KYIV — Russia launched dozens of missiles and drones at Ukraine's energy sector, Kyiv said on Wednesday, ramping up a monthslong bombing campaign at a precarious moment of the war for Ukraine.The barrage came a day after Kyiv said it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometers from the front line.The Ukrainian air force said Russia had deployed 43 cruise and ballistic missiles and 74 attack drones in the overnight barrage that appeared to have targeted sites mainly in western Ukraine.'Another massive Russian attack. It is the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains the same: our energy sector,' President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media.Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement that its forces had carried out 'high precision' strikes on energy facilities that 'support the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.'It also repeated its claim that all the designated targets had been struck.But the Ukrainian air force said 30 missiles had been shot down, as well as 47 drones, while Zelenskyy said the authorities had been able to maintain the 'operation of our energy system.'Poland scrambles jetsHis comments, in which he urged allies to supply air-defense systems already promised to Ukraine, came ahead of a meeting between Zelenskyy and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the Polish capital Warsaw.A senior Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the leaders would discuss expectations for the upcoming United States presidency of Donald Trump and defense.Poland scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace, its Operational Command announced on social media, adding that there had been no violations of its airspace over its three-hour mission.Officials in western Ukraine, near Poland, said on Wednesday that key infrastructure had been targeted or hit.Svitlana Onyshchuk, regional governor of Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region, wrote on social media that critical infrastructure facilities had been targeted in the attack.She said air-defense systems had engaged incoming projectiles, adding that there had been no casualties and that the situation was under control.But authorities in the western Lviv region, which borders the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, said two critical infrastructure facilities had been hit in the Drogobych and Stryi districts, without elaborating.'Fortunately, there were no casualties, but there was damage,' Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytsky wrote on social media.The Ukrainian national grid operator Ukrenergo temporarily introduced emergency blackouts in seven regions and lifted them after the attack.Ukrenergo, however, urged Ukrainians not to use powerful electrical appliances until later in the evening.Separately, the governor of the eastern Donetsk region said critical infrastructure had also been hit in his region over the last 24 hours but did not specify when the strikes had occurred.The mayor of the southern city of Kherson, meanwhile, said, 'part of our community is without electricity' as a result of the overnight barrage, without giving figures of those without power.Ukrainian authorities earlier issued air raid alerts for the entire country, warning of incoming missiles. AFP journalists heard sirens ringing out over the capital early Wednesday.Moscow has pursued a monthslong bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, claiming the attacks are targeted against facilities that aid Kyiv's military.The Russian military had accused Kyiv of using US- and United Kingdom-supplied missiles for one of the strikes the previous day and promised it would 'not go unanswered.'
